“And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Willpower is a limited resource. We often find ourselves facing a situation that would require more willpower than we currently possess. We could try cajoling or bullying ourselves into carrying on, but as our reserves of willpower dwindle lower and lower, we will find it almost impossible to keep pushing forward once our motivation and energy and forward momentum has evaporated. But our Savior Jesus Christ showed us a way to get around the limits of our own personal willpower. Even Jesus Christ Himself, while He was in the flesh, had limits on His willpower. When He was in the Garden of Gethsemane He was forced to acknowledge that the impossible task in front of Him could not be done by His willpower alone. It could only be done through His Father’s will, not His own. When viewed through this lens, we can see that making the choice to let God’s will prevail does not have to be some internal struggle but can come as a huge relief. When the road before us is more than we can handle, when our willpower has been all used up and we have many miles yet to go, we can say, “Not as I will,” not by my willpower, “but as thou wilt,” by Thy willpower. Our agency and willpower are extremely important to our Heavenly Father and ourselves. He wants us to be anxiously engaged in using our willpower to overcome the challenges that we must face. But when our willpower is not enough, that’s when we have the opportunity of letting go of our own will and yielding control over to our Heavenly Father, Whose will is infinite, and for Whom nothing is impossible.
